This blog is about using ICTs to develop climate change preparedness solutions built around Energy Internet and autonomous eVehicles

Energy Internet and eVehicles Overview

Governments around the world are wrestling with the challenge of how to prepare society for inevitable climate change. To date most people have been focused on how to reduce Green House Gas emissions, but now there is growing recognition that regardless of what we do to mitigate against climate change the planet is going to be significantly warmer in the coming years with all the attendant problems of more frequent droughts, flooding, sever storms, etc. As such we need to invest in solutions that provide a more robust and resilient infrastructure to withstand this environmental onslaught especially for our electrical and telecommunications systems and at the same time reduce our carbon footprint.

Linking renewable energy with high speed Internet using fiber to the home combined with autonomous eVehicles and dynamic charging where vehicle's batteries are charged as it travels along the road, may provide for a whole new "energy Internet" infrastructure for linking small distributed renewable energy sources to users that is far more robust and resilient to survive climate change than today's centralized command and control infrastructure. These new energy architectures will also significantly reduce our carbon footprint. For more details please see:

How to use Green Bond Funds to underwrite costs of new network and energy infrastructure: https://goo.gl/74Bptd

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Obama Adviser Looks At Deploying National U.S. Broadband Network

[As I have mentioned several times in my postings there is soon going to be a huge pot of money available to pay for several national broadband networks, as well as cyber-infrastructure facilities in the US and possibly elsewhere.

The Waxman-Markey bill wending its way through Congress will require that utilities purchase $1.25 in carbon offsets for every $1.00 they spend on emission permits (although its not clear whether this will apply to the free permits that are proposed to be allocated under the bill)

Broadband networks and cyber-infrastructure can go a long way in helping reduce the US carbon footprint. Estimates of 15-20% overall reduction of CO2 are possible through virtualization and dematerialization using broadband networks.

Qualifying these reductions as high quality offsets as per the Waxman-Markey bill will more than pay for a national broadband rollout.

On June 1st CANARIE will launch its long awaited Green IT Pilot program which will help Canadian universities, industries and R&E networks learn how to develop the necessary protocols under ISO 14064 to make cyber-infrastructure and broadband networks eligible to earn such carbon offsets.

The Waxman-Markey bill could result in hundreds of billions of dollars in carbon offsets.

Thanks to Eric Lee for this pointer on posting from Gordon Cook’s Arch-econ list—BSA]

Bill

TELECOMMUNICATIONSObama Adviser Looks At U.S.-Built Broadband Network

Tuesday, May 26, 2009by David Hatch

A senior adviser to President Obama is touting the idea of spending tens of billions of dollars in public funds to build a nationwide, state-of-the-art broadband network featuring speeds 100 times faster than today's technology.

While there has been no formal Obama administration commitment to such infrastructure investment, Susan Crawford, special assistant to the president for science, technology and innovation policy, has said she is "personally intrigued" by an ambitious plan by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

His plan proposes a public-private partnership that would invest up to$33 billion over eight years to build and operate a fiber-optic broadband network reaching 90 percent of homes and workplaces.Wireless and satellite technology would be used to reach the remaining 10 percent in the outback.

Obama and congressional Democrats have backed a $7.2 billion cash infusion to stimulate domestic broadband investment as part of this year's economic stimulus package, but experts have acknowledged that gaps in availability and bandwidth will remain, with pockets of the United States left with no service or antiquated technology.

Proponents of Australia's program argue that the government-subsidized network promises myriad opportunities for online businesses and enhancements to energy efficiency, media distribution and public safety.

A chief concern here is that a public broadband network would be costly -- upward of $430 billion. While U.S. consumers would benefit from the increased competition and lower monthly rates, they would foot the bill through tax dollars.

"I think it's a pipe dream at this point," said a telecommunications industry source, who added, "Good luck finding the money in this fiscal environment."

Other industry sources also cautioned that a government-subsidized network might dissuade private sector investment, leaving Americans with fewer options down the road. "You can't just build it and you're done," one critic cautioned, emphasizing the government would have to spend billions on upgrades and would be saddled with customer service responsibilities. "The government's continually going to have this 'white whale' it's going to have to keep pouring money into."

As the FCC prepares a national broadband strategy to be presented to Congress by Feb. 17, there's already speculation that the agency -- at the prodding of the White House -- will give serious thought to adapting Australia's model for the United States.

Crawford, a member of Obama's National Economic Council, raised eyebrows when she discussed Australia's plan at a policy forum in April.

"Simply put, a digital economy requires fiber, and Australia is making the determination that for that to work it will require a utility approach," Crawford said, noting that Singapore is making a similar investment and Britain and the Netherlands are exploring the concept.

"These governments understand that a wholesale network can deliver massive social and economic benefits," she said, referring to capacity that would be made available to carriers at reduced rates. (For a fuller version of this article, go to CongressDaily's TechCentral athttp://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/techcentral/.)

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About Me

Bill St. Arnaud is a consultant and research engineer who works with clients around the world on a variety of subjects such as next generation Internet networks and developing practical solutions to reduce CO2 emissions such as free broadband and dynamic charging of eVehicles. He is an author of many papers and articles on these topics and is a frequent guest speaker. For more details on my research interests see https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bill_Arnaud